I am new to this site, though a long-time backyard birder. I live in the northern foothills of Tucson, Arizona, in desert environment, and with a very small bird pond, some feeders, and plantings. I get lots of birds visiting, but mostly expected birds. Yesterday morning I saw an unusual-looking woodpecker or flicker on my quail block. Careful observation and a check in my bird book and here told me it was a golden-fronted woodpecker. According to the references, these occur in Oklahoma and Texas, with strays to eastern New Mexico. We recently had a huge major cold front come through. My question is: could the woodpecker have been picked up by the winds and deposited here, hundreds of miles from its normal territory?
